SILESIAN OPERA HOUSE
ARCHITECTURE: ALEXANDER BÖHM (1901)
2015 BYTOM

Dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Silesian Opera House in Bytom is one of the most beautiful buildings of its kind in Silesia. Magnificently designed by Alexander Böhm and not badly maintained, the building's original, richly decorated facades have long deserved a suitable illumination.
The contract we received gave us the interesting and difficult design task of highlighting the beauty of the well-recognised building through illumination without introducing any competitive elements.

During the course of the project, we developed solutions that, as the implementation showed, allowed us to emphasise the natural architecture of the building, as well as to strengthen its prominence in the urban space.

The most important part of the project was the illumination of two unique portals - the entrance one (from Moniuszki Street) and the representative one (from Sikorski Square). The sculpted structure of both portals made it possible to hide almost all light sources and to achieve an unusually rich play of light and shadow, emphasising the beautiful Art Nouveau decorations.

It is worth mentioning that, taking into account one of the important demands of the project, the city decided, in parallel to the ongoing modernisation of the Opera House, to rebuild the existing street lighting in the immediate vicinity of the building, making it an integral part of the illumination project.
The illumination of the Silesian Opera House in Bytom, realised in 2016, is an example of design underpinned by an understanding of the specific nature of the architecture to be illuminated and the aim of enhancing its expression and natural beauty.